pwm
Posts: 78
Joined: 5/1/2006 From: MI Status: offline
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In 1988, my family decided to sell a business that my grandfather founded in 1929. No names. We had a dozen plants and 1100 employees. We were one of 5 surviving companies of our kind out of 50 or more just a few decades previously, and likely the most respected - both for quality of product, and for our business practices. None of the family in my generation were both qualified AND interested in in running the company. We were approached by a large company who wanted to get into our business, and had researched to find who was best. They said that they wanted to buy our company because of how we did business, how we treated out customers, and how we treated our employees. (We had the lowest employee turnover in our industry by A FACTOR OF FOUR!) We had laid off only five employees in the history of the company, and they were returned to work within a few weeks. When business was slow, we put the employees (and senior management, middle management, and family members) to work improving the plant, refurbishing machinery, and generally getting ready for better times. This often gave us a year's head start when business picked up again. (We were in a VERY cyclic business. Part of a decade up, part of a decade down, time after time.) After a lot of discussion and negotiation, we sold the company to them. They asked all the senior management to agree to remain with the company (anyone see anything missing here?). Within a year, the (public, not family) stockholders of the company that bought us threw out their Board of Directors, and replaced them with a slate that was focused on the next-quarter bottom-line. When business slacked off for a while, they told the management to lay off half the force. When the management (our old management) said that's not how we do things, they fired the management (now you see what we missed) and put in new managers who cheerfully laid off (permanently as it turned out) nearly half of the workforce, starting with the oldest (most seniority, most experienced, and thus highest paid) employees. A lot of these guys had been with the company for over 30 years. Over the next few years, they f***ed over the suppliers, the customers, and even more of the employees, until the company went from having the best reputation in the industry to the worst. Then they closed all but two of the plants and sold most of the machinery. Last I heard they were down to under 80 employees. I believe the company (or at least the name) has been sold to a different company that seems to be trying to rebuild the reputation. My family, and the people we negotiated with, had the company's and the employees' best interests in mind as we talked. To no avail; neither of us ultimately had any control over what eventually happened. Now - - - ask me how I feel about selling any business that you care about.
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